Because IPO mechanisms determine both the initial trading price and the allocation of newly-listed firms' shares, they have financial and strategic consequences for shareholders. For that reason, it is of interest to analyse the relative advantages and disadvantages of the different procedures...

This survey aims at appraising the empirical research conducted on the European IPO markets as of the current date, and at determining to what extent IPO theories explain European IPO patterns. To that end, we first describe the going public process in Europe, its recent developments and its...